Chanel's New Artistic Director is Matthieu Blazy
Coco Chanel's got a brand new man.
Matthieu Blazy has been named artistic director at Chanel, the French heritage house announced on Thursday. He will likely begin his tenure in April, and is expected to present his first collection in October during Paris Fashion Week, WWD reported. As artistic director, Blazy will oversee ready-to-wear, haute couture and accessories, or some 10 collections a year.
“I am thrilled and honored to join the wonderful house of Chanel,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to meeting all the teams and writing this new chapter together.”
Blazy joins one of the most perfumed names in fashion from the Italian label Bottega Veneta, which he led to new creative and commercial heights. Chanel, founded over 100 years ago, has been headed by only a handful of designers, including the pioneering namesake and Karl Lagerfeld, who transformed it into a global luxury behemoth in his nearly 40-year run at the top, from 1983 until his death in 2019.
Lagerfeld was 50 when he was tapped to run what was then a faded name in haute couture, and by the time he died at 85 Chanel was the second largest fashion company in luxury, with revenues in the billions. Along the way, he arguably changed the fashion industry writ large. He was succeeded by his deputy Virginie Viard, who left the label this summer after five years at the helm.
“I am delighted to welcome Matthieu Blazy,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel Fashion and Chanel SAS, to whom Blazy will report. “I am convinced he will be able to play with the codes and heritage of the house, through an ongoing dialogue with the studio, our ateliers, and our maisons d'art.”
Blazy, 40, is coming off a celebrated run at Bottega, where he was appointed in November 2021 and drew strong celebrity interest, including the likes of Jacob Elordi and Julianne Moore. The Belgian-French designer previously worked at Raf Simons, Maison Margiela, Celine under Phoebe Philo and Calvin Klein under Simons. He graduated from the visual arts school La Cambre in Brussels.
“Matthieu Blazy is one of the most gifted designers of his generation,” said Alain Wertheimer, global executive chairman, and Leena Nair, global ceo of Chanel. “His vision and talent will reinforce the energy of the brand and our position as a leader in luxury.” Annual revenues at Chanel exceed $19 billion, WWD has reported.
It has been a newsy week for fashion. Hours before Chanel made its blockbuster announcement, Bottega named Louise Trotter as Blazy's successor. And on Wednesday, John Galliano said he was leaving Margiela after a decade. There's much speculation about his future.
The Chanel development caps a wild year at the highest levels of fashion, which has seen departures and arrivals at Valentino, Givenchy, Celine and Lanvin, whose new creative director, Peter Copping, will make his debut with a coed show in January, when the Paris men's and haute couture shows are scheduled. With today's announcement, Chanel put a stop to its own game of musical chairs. Pavlovsky sees the Blazy appointment as the beginning of a long relationship.
“We hope to be together for 10, 15 years or more,” he told WWD.
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